The use of colour and shape to enhance mood in landscape painting, from the turn of the 20th century, and its contemporary applications

The main focus of my research for the Master of Fine Arts has been the use of modified colour to enhance mood in the landscape or to evoke a specific emotion. An emphasis has also been placed on specific shapes, by simplification, distortion and by minimising their background, to bring out the essential elements that recall the place and the atmosphere. Therefore in my painting practice I prefer to capture a personalised view of the landscape based on an emotional response to it rather than to achieve a naturalistic representation. My work is further abstracted by emphasising the material nature of the painting, thus drawing attention from the image to the painted surface. This is achieved by building up the painting in numerous paint layers through scumbling and glazing to establish a rich painterly effect. A strong interplay between colours is created within the individual design areas of the painting by overlaying discontinuous paint layers of contrasting colours to draw additional focus to the surface.Throughout the research, the historical associations and symbolism of colours and the psychological effects connected to specific colours in colour therapy have been studied to gain an understanding of the general colour culture. Following this, personal colour symbolism and meanings have been proposed and employed. The impact of specific shapes within the composition of a painting have also been studied with regard to the way they move the eyes around the painting in a physical sense, and thereby effect the flow of energy within the work in an emotional sense. Claude Monet, Wassily Kandinsky and Peter Doig have been the three main artistic influences selected for research with relation to my own art practice, representing three diverse attitudes in painting including Impressionism, Expressionism and contemporary painting practice. Each of these artists has manipulated colour and shape to evoke mood in their landscapes with very different results in the final aesthetics of their work.The impact of the chosen subject matter in establishing the mood of the painting is also briefly discussed. Whilst important, this is not a primary focus in the research. Three different landscape regions have been chosen as subject matter for my paintings because they each emphasise different landscape elements and formal aspects that have been explored in the work. The coastal environment of the South Coast of New South Wales accommodates my preoccupation with the depiction of water surfaces and reflections; the outback landscape around Broken Hill facilitates the use of a flattened sense of space through the elimination of aerial perspective, and the Chinese Gardens in Sydney has been instructive in achieving a greater contrast between areas of flat empty space and fine inferred details within my compositions